Heat and Radiators in KSP-Am I missing something?

[DalisClock]

I've been playing this game off and on for a couple years now and like everyone else, 1.0 was a bit of a shock because of the new Aero.

However, one thing that I haven't really seen the effect of is overheating, especially in space. I've seen radiators were added to the stock parts and I've heard a lot of people on these forums talk about having issuing with re-entry and ships just overheating in general.

The weirdness for me is that I haven't seen any of this while playing. The only time I've noticed any kind of overheating issues is while doing a full burn on ascent and that rarely causes anything close to catastrophic overheating. Hell, I don't even bother with the new heat shields because it doesn't seem to make an difference. Even with heatshields I've rarely lost more then a fraction of my ablator on re-entry. I've never bothered with the radiators and used the 2.5 Nuclear Engine for long burns without issue.

I'm using the steam version so I'm assuming I have the latest release and while I use mods, most of them are essentially part packs(FASA, Novapunch, one of the station part packs) as well as tools like KER and Mechjeb. The only one that really changes the game is KAS/KIS.

I'm not trying to sound like a ...., so if I am, I apologize, but I'm curious what's the deal is with the heat issues? Or is this only something that happens near Moho and Eve? I'm not even a particularly good rocket designer(as my many crashed rockets will attest to) so I would think somewhere along the line I would have encountered this accidently.

[Joonatan1998]

Radiators are really only needed if you use nuclear engines.

It doesn't really matter where you place them, I think they cool the whole craft.

[Randazzo]

You're missing something.

Heat is not much of an issue anymore, except with certain mods.

[*Aqua*]

According to the latest dev notes there's a bug with a cool part which has several hot parts attached. Due to a bug in the heat transfer system the cool part could overheat and explode.

Also you can't use Jool for aerobreaking at interplanetary speeds anymore. You instantly overheat. That is also a bug.

Also note that the heat mechanics are tuned for extreme uses. The heat shields for example are balanced for an Eve re-entry. That's why you never have a problem using them at Kerbin.

[More Boosters]

According to the latest dev notes there's a bug with a cool part which has several hot parts attached. Due to a bug in the heat transfer system the cool part could overheat and explode.

Also you can't use Jool for aerobreaking at interplanetary speeds anymore. You instantly overheat. That is also a bug.

Also note that the heat mechanics are tuned for extreme uses. The heat shields for example are balanced for an Eve re-entry. That's why you never have a problem using them at Kerbin.

I sure wish they would reliably allow a Jool aerobrake even with full ablator though.

[RidingTheFlow]

It will all change in 1.1 according to latest devnotes (full heat system rewrite & atmospheres density falloff tuning).

[mikegarrison]

The problem with Jool is not the heat system, it's the atmosphere system. A real atmosphere does not have a a cut-off altitude. The higher you get, the thinner it gets, but it doesn't just end. With Jool, the atmosphere constants are wrong so that the atmosphere cuts off when it is still thick. You go from nothing to a thick atmosphere instantly, so aerobraking doesn't work.

The biggest problem with the heat shielding is that we should be able to have a heavy heat shield for Eve and a light heat shield for Kerbin. Or better yet, the amount of ablator should be tweakable. But the other problem is that Kerbin is just too small. They have to tune the heating constants so that you get some heating on Kerbin without making Eve completely impossible, and that leads to Kerbin being too easy while Eve is still too hard. (Also, when v1.0 first came out and Kerbin re-entry was really hard, everybody complained. So they dialed it way back.)

[RidingTheFlow]

Or better yet, the amount of ablator should be tweakable.

Umm, amount of ablator is tweakable since heat shields were first added.

[mikegarrison]

Umm, amount of ablator is tweakable since heat shields were first added.

Really? I never noticed.

[Gaarst]

I agree with what has been said above about heatshields: you don't need them at Kerbin, even for interplanetary reentries. For Eve and Jool (and Laythe but to a lesser extent) their atmospheres are still very like oceans: theya re very dense until the top, which is why you'll explode as soon as you touch Jool's atmosphere. For these planets heatshields are required due to the dense atmosphere (and also because of higher speeds). But if you play with RSS (with reentry speeds from 7km/s to 11+km/s) or with Deadly Reentry (what the title says) then you'll definitely need a heatshield wherever you go.

And for overheating in space, the power output of nukes was reduced with 1.0.2? (.3? don't remember) and radiators were added. But as heat from nukes was reduced, you don't really need radiators for your craft not explode (unless you have several nukes or go sun-diving) anymore. In 1.0.something, I had a nuke powered ship that did a 3500m/s insertion burn at Moho while exposed to the sun, with no radiators, and everything went fine. So for radiators, it really depends on the design of your ship: some will do fine without, others will not stand any burn unless you use radiators. And, BTW, if your ship has no nukes, just forget about radiators.

Also, there exists a bug with heating that may cause sudden overheating of your craft and its explosion. For this, radiators won't be able to do anything so just quicksave often: the Kraken's flames are too strong for your puny radiators and they will eventually melt with the rest of your ship.

[metl]

I've had the same thoughts as the OP. I've not once ever used any radiators, even while using the nuke. I'm hoping 1.1 makes it much more needed.

[lordlundar]

The Ablator is set up as a resource like fuel and electric charge so you can adjust it in the VAB.